Dzongkha/Grammar

Parts of Speech

Determiner

There are three determiner classes in Ainu: numeral determiners (<ndet>), nominal demonstratives (<ndom>), and anaphoric demonstratives (<adom>). It is typologically interesting that in Ainu, all determiners must be prenominal and cannot be an NP by themselves.

• チセ<n><ndom> ↔ タン チセ ("this house")
• チセ<n><ndet> ↔ ト゚ チセ ("this house")
• ト゚ㇷ゚<bn><ndet> ↔ ト゚ㇷ゚ ("two things")

Verb

Because Verbs in Ainu <vblex> have only the indicative mood <pri>, conjugations use auxiliary verbs. For example, a present tense <pres> continuing action is denoted by the auxiliary verbs <vaux> «shiri ne», while the auxiliary «okere», when placed after a verb, means the verb has concluded.

• クキㇰ<vblex><vaux><pres> ↔ クキㇰシリネ ("I strike" becomes "I am striking")

Verbs are split into four classes based on valency: zero-argument verbs (<av>), intransitive verbs (<iv>), transitive verbs (<tv>), and the copula (<cop>). While other languages have a separate class for adjectives, Ainu expresses adjectival content through intransitive verbs.

Zero-argument verbs are meteorological predicates, most of which contain the subject シㇼ ("appearance/land"):

• シㇼピㇼカ<vblex><av> ↔ シㇼピㇼカ ("it is good weather")

Intransitive verbs take S series verbal affixes, transitive verbs take A and O series affixes, and the copula ネ takes A series markers but not O series.

• ネ<vblex><cop> ↔ ネ ("be/become")

Adverb

Adverbs in Ainu <adv> seem to be created from adding suffixes to adjectives:

• アシリ<adv> ↔ アシンノ ("new" becomes "newly")
• ソン<adv> ↔ ソンノ ("true" becomes "truly")
• モイレ<adv> ↔ モイレタラ ("slow" becomes "slowly")
• ラチ<adv> ↔ ラチタラ ("gentle" becomes "gently")

The adverbs of affirmation are «エ», «ルウェ», «ルウェ ウン», «オプンキ», «ヤㇰウン», all of which mean "yes," and «オハイネ» which means "just so; so it is." The adverbs of negation are «セエンネ» and «ショモ», both of which mean "no; not."

Article

Although there is no proper article in Ainu, the numeral adjective «shine» can be used as an indefinite article, for which we will use the tag <det> to denote determiner and <ind> to denote indefiniteness.

• アイヌ<n><det><ind> ↔ シネ アイヌ ("a man")
• チセイ<n><det><ind> ↔ シネ チセイ ("a house")
• チコイキㇷ゚<n><det><ind> ↔ シネ チコイキㇷ゚ ("an animal")

However, «シネ» is also used to denote one of a thing (denoted by the tag <sg>) varying by context:

• アイヌ<n><sg> ↔ シネ アイヌ ("one man")
• シウェンテㇷ゚<n><sg> ↔ シネ シウェンテㇷ゚ ("one woman")

For the definite article (<def> the demonstrative adjective «ネイ» is sometimes used:

• クル<n><det><def> ↔ ネイ クル ("(the) person")
• チェㇷ゚<n><det><def> ↔ ネイ チェㇷ゚ ("(the) fish")

Noun

Nouns (<n>) in Ainu do not undergo any morphological processes to denote number, gender, or case. Other words are combined with nouns to express this information:

• アイヌ<n> ↔ アイヌ
• アイヌ<n><pl> ↔ アイヌ ウタラ
• アイヌ<n><sg> ↔ シネ アイヌ

Nouns are classified into three categories: common nouns, relational nouns, and bound nouns. Common nouns are further divided into "conceptual" <conc> and "possessive" <pos> forms. The possessive forms have suffixes for possession, and prefixes "of the A (= transitive subject) series to cross-reference the possessor"(Bugaeva, 470). We will use the tags <cn>, <rn>, and <bn> to denote common, relational, and bound nouns, respectively.

• シㇰ<n><cn><pos> ↔ クシㇰイヒ ("my eye")

Relational nouns take the place of adverbs and prepositions from European languages to express spatial/temporal relations. They have conceptual and possessive forms but relational nouns are marked for person/number of the possessor with object prefixes.

• サㇺ<n><rn><pos><p1><sg> ↔ エンサㇺ ("near me")

However, there are no prefixes for 3rd person nouns, and possessive suffixes are only for 3rd person animate <aa> possessors:

• サㇺ<n><rn><pos><p3><sg> ↔ メノコ サㇺア ("near the woman")

Bound nouns can't occur by themselves and must be modified with either a noun, determiner, or relative clause. There are only six of these: クㇽ ("person") ウタㇽ ("people") ウㇱケ/ウㇱケヘ ("(the) place/time (of)") ペ/ㇷ゚ ("thing/person") ヒケ ("the one/side") ヒ/イ ("place/time").